While the instances of social media harassments are soaring up it is a tough row to hoe for the investigators to prove the charges of online abuse since the retrieval of the content on the internet once modified or removed is a tough task. If things go on the right way, to capture and preserve evidence from cyberspace including social media could not be a matter for worry. Nitin Sudhakar, a 19-year-old law student of National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi has come up with a web archiving tool for e-discovery.
Nitin, the creator of the application named EA321 (expert advice.321), is waiting for the copyright and technical approval from the authorities. "The tool is currently made as a web extension for the easiness of use and accessibility to the public. Taking into account the expensive nature of the compliance, we will ensure that there will be always a free version available of this tool to the public. Users will be able to capture and preserve the content from the internet using the forensic procedure for producing in courts or for other compliance. We have also developed a user-friendly dashboard. Security measures like hashing, encryption and digital signature are being used to make sure no one even the hosts cannot tamper with the content", he said.
According to him, the application can be used for investigation and produce evidence in criminal cases. "The tool will certainly help the judiciary to ascertain the originality of the evidence produced in courts", he added. Nitin, a fifth-semester student, came to know the fact that retrieving the evidence in cyberspace is tricky while doing an internship on the cyber forensic law. He developed the tool with a team comprising engineering and other professionals. "Though many software is now available but all expensive. The veracity of the evidence preserved in the application will be verified at a later point in time".
P Vinod Bhattathiripad, the cyber forensic expert, has opined that the authenticity of the application should be first recognized by the expert government authorities concerned. The technology used to develop the tools also should be get approved then only it could produce before an evidence before the courts, he added.
Starmon Pillai, Kerala Police High-Tech Crime Enquiry Cell ACP said that the police is already using various software to capture the original of the once tampered and deleted contents on the internet.
Rose Varghese, Vice Chancellor of NUALS said that the NUALS has extended full support for the further development of the tool.
